A guide to using Ukelele
In this article you’ll create a custom keyboard layout for Mac OS that you can use to enter special Unicode characters or unsupported languages.
Default keyboards
Mac OS offers a lot of language options and keyboard layouts out of the box. You can find them by going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Input Sources. Then click the + plus button to add another one.
However, if you speak a minority language or need some other special purpose keyboard, you may not be able to find it.
As a case in point, I’m teaching an English phonetics class this term, and while online keyboards like ipa.typeit.org work fine, I need a more convenient solution to type the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) directly on my computer. I also need another keyboard to write traditional Mongolian script, which isn’t included in the Mac OS supported keyboard list.
Creating a custom keyboard
In order to create a custom keyboard, you need to make a keyboard layout bundle. Ukelele will help you do that. It’s a program created by…
